Reconstructing the Mildred Barnes and Robert Woods Bliss Collection of Asian Art
Dumbarton Oaks may be the Harvard research center for Byzantine, Pre-Columbian,
and Garden and Landscape studies, but the founders, Mildred Barnes Bliss
(1879–1969) and Robert Woods Bliss (1875–1962) had a collection of Asian art
noteworthy enough to merit a mention in the 1929 publication by Benjamin March,
"China and Japan in our museums." With a few exceptions, this collection has been
dispersed, largely to fund acquisitions in the primary collection areas. In this paper, I will
focus on four objects or groups of objects known to have been in the collection. They
are a small ceramic bowl now at the MFA, Boston; a bronze wine vessel included in a
1938 exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; a bronze fibula with documented
conservation treatment; and a group of objects that were used in an exchange for a
Teotihuacan mask. This selection demonstrates the diversity of sources for the objects,
their various uses while in the collection, and the ways in which they were dispersed. I
will conclude with the discussion of a few objects that remain at Dumbarton Oaks
including a stone Buddha head and a pair of buckles that are in the Byzantine
Collection. Reconstructing the ownership history of the objects prior to and after the
Bliss period provides a lens into the collecting of Asian art in the 1920s and 1930s. It is
also my hope to foster information sharing in the provenance research space, and,
maybe, discover the current locations of the former collection objects.
and Garden and Landscape studies, but the founders, Mildred Barnes Bliss
(1879–1969) and Robert Woods Bliss (1875–1962) had a collection of Asian art
noteworthy enough to merit a mention in the 1929 publication by Benjamin March,
"China and Japan in our museums." With a few exceptions, this collection has been
dispersed, largely to fund acquisitions in the primary collection areas. In this paper, I will
focus on four objects or groups of objects known to have been in the collection. They
are a small ceramic bowl now at the MFA, Boston; a bronze wine vessel included in a
1938 exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; a bronze fibula with documented
conservation treatment; and a group of objects that were used in an exchange for a
Teotihuacan mask. This selection demonstrates the diversity of sources for the objects,
their various uses while in the collection, and the ways in which they were dispersed. I
will conclude with the discussion of a few objects that remain at Dumbarton Oaks
including a stone Buddha head and a pair of buckles that are in the Byzantine
Collection. Reconstructing the ownership history of the objects prior to and after the
Bliss period provides a lens into the collecting of Asian art in the 1920s and 1930s. It is
also my hope to foster information sharing in the provenance research space, and,
maybe, discover the current locations of the former collection objects.